#ChesterLovesAimee

FINALLY!

This was what I said after hearing the news that Chester will marry Aimee. Grabe ha tagal na nila! They were together since college pa.

Anyway, the couple was so generous to invite D also so Joann and I have a ride! Yey!

Taken at our home. Grabbed from @pasaway7 instagram

As always, we were almost late. We reached Paco Park thru Shaw instead of the straight Makati route. Ang hirap lumusot sa coding window ha. Buti na lang we were just in time to witness this.

And the marriage was sealed!

Grabbed from instagram

Such bliss!

Grabbed from instagram

See that girl at the side? That's Effortless Representative! haha! Here's from my point of view - 

BTW, they were wed in the very gorgeous Paco Church. Cute! Perfect for a small solemn wedding.

Grabbed from instagram

It's so green! Very nice background for pictures! This was us maximizing the time of waiting. Not in the picture was Rio, Kel + Ely and D.

After waiting for Rio to finish the pictorial, we made our way to Ramon Magsaysay Center. We were greeted by these -

Grabbed from @cora_cha

And their very cute Place Cards (or should I call it Place Glass?)

While the couple was on their pictorial sesh, we enjoyed the cocktails, photobooth and more cam-whoring.

Lights by Rejectkrew. Grabbed from @cora_cha

Grabbed from @cora_cha

Food! Finally! We were so famished that no one bothered to take a picture. Glad Jayvee captured these pa - 

Grabbed from @cora_cha

To cap off the evening, I grabbed D for a picture before he head out again to answer his phone. Hayy damn work.

Congratulations and Best Wishes Mr. and Mrs. Chester Gerolaga! :)

Peaches and Lemons,

Yosh

{SUPPLIER RATING} Hair and Make Up

LORYBELLE SANGUIR-BARRETTO

CONTACT: 0917-622 0823 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hair-Makeup-by-Belle-Sanguir-Barretto/118672304830820?fref=ts

DAMAGE: P10,000 for Bride, Groom, Plus 2 heads and Free Flower Girl, with Free Retouch before Reception (Bridal Fair Rate)

I'm really not comfortable about my ratings on this one. It's like getting your friend as a supplier then she somewhat 'disappointed' you. You will give all the reasons to put off the honest rating (you might even give her a perfect score just because you're friends pa malamang!). But I will not do that. I owe my w@w sisters honest reviews. But first let me clear some things - Belle and I are not close friends (FC lang ako!). But she is one of my fave suppliers which I consider my friend na rin after my wedding. Or so I think we're friends (that's coming from me ha? hehe). So this rating will purely be professional.

Here's the STORY to give you a background why I booked her. 

Next thing I know I was so busy na so the second trial happened like two weeks before the wedding na. During that time, all my hesitations about her vanished. I super liked her and her home (we had our trial makeup in her home in Meycauayan). Even my makeup was superb! I loved it! Look at the picture I grabbed from her FB below. Just excuse the color, not a very flattering light but it was very good in person. I was able to rampa it after and no itchiness happened! Very nice! 

These were taken using my phone - 

After that, our communication was all thru emails. But during the last minutes, the communication was between her and my coordinators na. So I'm really not sure who made a mistake on the schedule. It's because according to the schedule my coordinators and I agreed, my hair should be set at 8 in the morning. By 8:30, my coordinators and my photographers were there already (even my ento hmua) and I was not yet set. By around 8:45, I texted her and she said she was caught by traffic but will be in the hotel just before her call time which was 9 am. Uh-oh! I didn't bother finding who's at fault na because I don't want stress at that moment. Anyhoo, we started as soon as she arrived.

My hair was done by her hairstylist in parallel. This was the best pic I had of her.

So how was my hair? It was exactly how I wanted it to be - Braided ala Katniss Everdeen. But what I didn't want was the state of my hair. My hair had a bad case of rebond regrowth. In short, my sumpa were showing. Weeks before the wedding, I asked Belle if it's ok if I have my hair rebonded. I was worried kasi that the hair products might not cooperate with a newly rebonded hair. She advised me to get a hair color instead, so my facial features will soften. I obliged and that I regret. Maybe it was because of the lack of time that my hairstylist didn't iron the top of my hair where the regrowth was. So with the hair style I chose, it was showing. Look at this - 

Sorry about the quality of the picture. My hated part was right above the braid. But it was ok, at least I got what I wanted. Anyway, my makeup naman was very good. Look at these portrait - 

And Belle even helped in putting my veil on - 

The next picture was how my mom and my sister looked like. I liked how Belle made up my mom, simple yet elegant. I didn't like my sister's makeup though. I think the hairstylist (not Belle) used the wrong powder on her. Notice the white cast? It was visible in every pictures. She also put on nude lipstick on her. Really? She's just a kid! I asked my cousin to change it to pink. The picture below was the changed color na, imagine the nude. aww

The other head was supposed to be D's mom but some miscommunication happened along the way again that Mama had her makeup done by the ento's HMUA. I just had her substituted by my other cousin who was also my abay. 

I learned also from D when I was interviewing him for this review that Belle wasn't able to groom him. It was his sister who put on some powder on him. Maybe there really was no time left then.

BTW, I have free retouch before the reception. She changed my lippy from pink to red and put my braid down (the actual Katniss Everdeen hair!). I also liked that she cared about how we smelled. We travelled from church to reception ala MMFF thus the amoy araw smell. Haha! She sprayed some of her personal perfume on me. So sweet! Here's what I looked like minutes before the reception finished. So sweaty but still the makeup was intact.

If only we had more time. If only she had a different hairstylist. My rating would be 3. But nevertheless, I'm still her fan. It was still a lovely day with her.

NEIL GORGEOUS (Entourage HMUA)

CONTACT: 0999-804-3224

DAMAGE: P600 per head

Honestly, my review here was not my first hand experience. I wasn't even able to meet him that day. Kuya Niel was my MOH's sister's friend. Haha such connections! We got him because of my MOH's testimonial of his talent. I let her take charge of this one since it's KKB and it's the cheapest we found. Anyway, Kuya Neil came with an assistant (not sure of the name) at around 7 in the morning just as I was taking my shower. Impressive! They were early for their 8 am call time. Since that time, they were able to finish 9 heads. Good time management!

Their makeup session happened in D's room so I have no idea of anything about them. Here's the best shot I have of them (or their things) -  

As for their output, just look at how beautiful my bridesmaids were - 

JONNA ROSE (Family HMUA)

DAMAGE: FREE

Of course, it's PERFECT! Libre eh! And takot ko lang kay ate. :)

My Ate Jonna is not a professional HMUA but she's our go-to makeup artist in the family. So during my wedding, she was the one who did all the makeups of our family members.

Here she was in action on the day - 

And here's her creation. Makeup and Hair - 

If you noticed, the kids do not have eyebrow liners. My cousin is not a fan of putting those on kids. For her, it only makes kids look older. And I totally agree with her, thus, the very simple makeup. 

Everything in my wedding was simple naman! And I loved it! How about you?

That's all!

Currently had the urge to put on eyeliner because of this post,

Yosh

Touching Thursday

If all good deeds (I'm guessing its good hehe) are reciprocated with a compliment, I'll vow to do it often. Wanna know what I'm talking about? Check this out -

If you're wondering what she's talking about. I blogged about that HERE. Alright! If you're too tamad to check out the link, I made their wedding cord. It's made of bead crystals, just like mine. Since the cord I made Lorie was just packed in a cheap pouch (sorry no time!), I made the packaging of this one extra special. Ok fine, I basically just bought a ready made box from Papemelroti. I just made the gift tag so I guess it's still personalized. It's because I am somewhat hoping that Jaja Samaniego will capture my craft. I was once obsessed by her captures and it will be a dream come true if she'll use my work as her object. My fingers are crossed! Weee

And surprise! They liked it! Plus the tita and the mama! Hooray! It's not everyday that someone appreciates my craft so imagine my glee. Maybe I can continue my vow to craft the cords of all my friends to wed? What do you think?


Head bloated with glee,
Yosh

{SUPPLIER RATING} Music

CORO DE SAN SEBASTIAN

DAMAGE: FREE (Gift from Friends!)

Did you know that D was once a choir member? Trivia! Yes he sings well. That's the reason why we had a hard time finding singers! Because he had that 'singer din ako' standard. Anyhoo, he was once a member of Coro de San Sebastian of Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City (he's also a sacristan when he was younger!). He just stopped joining them when he worked in Laguna. Hmm actually there's more to that, but I won't talk about it anymore, just ask him, ok? So going back, when the thought of getting a choir arrived, I instantly told him to just get his former choirmates to sing for us but he first declined the idea because he wanted them to be just guests. But after some mathematics and the realization that we were really out of budget, he finally gathered the courage to ask the favor. He was very shy! Maybe because he haven't seen them in a while then all of sudden he'll just appear to ask for a favor. Sad, but we have no choice. 

Anyway, at first, we asked them to sing all the church songs. But I guess D's communication with them was not that established yet so he wasn't able to ask them to practice earlier. We were left with no choice but to ask our reception singers if they can sing my entrance song and the picture taking song.

Although that's what happened. I was still happy with how the music turned out. From outside the closed door, I heard my instrumental 'A Whole New World' played perfectly. I always thought it will be Akustik Jam who will play that, but it was Ate Mariz from Coro. Nice! Plus these trio did wonders -

During the mass, I can't help but look at them everytime they're singing. My angels have definitely fallen. 

AKUSTIK J.A.M

CONTACT: 0939-426-0891/0922-843-3297 c/o Anslee Alberto

DAMAGE: FREE (Gift from Friends!) Their normal MM 2012 rate is P10,000

Music was one of the aspects of the wedding that I let D handle. That's because I'm tone deaf! haha! So he took charge of choosing music in everything music-related. With a little help from me (but of course!). I gave him a shortlist of the musicians I saw in w@w, but most of them did not pass his standards. He wanted something classical, something Manila Philharmonic-like. But I opposed! (so sino nga ulit ang masusunod?) Dunno. Maybe I'm just not a fan of that kind of music. I want lyrics! If that's the case, his sure bet will of course be Sitti Navarro. But as I told you HERE, we cannot afford her. It was only when he heard Lara's friends that he gave his YES. Read more about it HERE.

As for me, I did not have even a pinch of doubt with Akustik Jam. I knew them as Lara's friends before being the band so my full confidence was with them not just professionally but as my friends also. Although I haven't met all of them (except Anslee) before the 'audition', I felt like we've been friends forever already. FC lang ang peg!

But still may hiya pa rin. If you're reading from top, you'll see that we asked them to sing in the church also. I was so shy because our first arrangement was that they will only sing in the reception but we have them sing in the church also. And they're not Catholics! Dyahe! I just made arrangements to give them something for lunch because I asked them to come earlier. I hope it reached them.

Anyway, here were the singers posing at the very picturesque Enderun.

See the girl in the middle? She's Melissa. She's every guys center of attention in my wedding (after me of course!). 

And here are the instrument players in action - 

Believe me, they were the greatest! I wasn't able to 100% listen to them that day (I was busy shempre) but every time I remembered to listen they never fail me. When I saw Jawo sang with his eyes tantalizing to my audience, I understood where the questions (uy ano name nun?) came from. They were all charming (sige na nga pati si Anslee!). But of course aside from the good looks (plus factor lang to), their music was great also.

But of all of them, it was Archie (the lead  guitarist) who captured D and my musically inclined friends' approval. He was versatile daw and he carried the band well. So sya pala ang leader! :P My MOH, Joann, wasn't able to prepare her supposed-to-be song and dance number beforehand so he asked the band to play for her. She and Brenda sang How Deep Is Your Love. Not well prepared but the music carried it naman. My emcee, Ellen, also sang to kill time. You know what they played? Superbass! Wow!

Here's them on site -

And here's all of them after the party. Yes, they were the very last supplier to leave. So touching!

Life-saver. I can't thank them enough.

Loving Music,

Yosh

{SUPPLIER RATING} Boys' Suit

BONNIE'S TAILORING
23 Textile Section Kamuning Market, QC.

CONTACT: 0947-176-2755 c/o Inggo

DAMAGE: P19,000 (1 5-pc suit, 1 coat & pants, 8 vest & pants, 4 boys' shorts)

   

A perfect score for their pulidong work! If only you were able to see the suits in person, you would probably say the same. Maybe it was their years in the tailoring business that made their products so presentable. And I'm proud to say that I was able to work with them. Well actually it was D but I was with him in every measurement sesh. You may want to read the story first of how we got them instead of the other popular option from w@w (yes! it was a w@w find!), please read HERE.

Here's Bonnie while taking D's measurement. Obvious naman sa cap na sya si Mang Bonnie diba? Hehe!

But most of the times, it was Kuya Inggo who entertained us. He was equally good din naman. By the way, we just showed them our peg -

From some site in the net

And they were able to come up with this -

Good eh? Now here's D's suit up close -

Impressed? We were!

However, we encountered a slight problem with the boys' shorts. We weren't able to bring the boys to them so what we did was we brought sample shorts for them to copy. They executed Kieron and Troy's shorts fine but I found Adam's shorts a little awkward. Well, Leo gave us garterized shorts only (our bad because we said it's ok). The finished shorts looked exactly the same as what we gave them. Yes, it's garterized also and not in any way formal. Good thing Adam was still able to pull it off. So no harm done!

Adam (left) and Kieron (right)

Ponching's shorts was garterized also. But we purposedly requested for that since he's just a baby. The only problem was - we requested to add an inch both on the waist and length. It turned out to be just the same as our sample but they were able to repair it naman. So no harm done again!

Our next issue was that they made us come back many times in their shop for the repairs. But I found this tolerable because our case was slightly special because D's dad and kuya have special measurements because they arrived just days before the wedding. Imagine we picked their suits on the 26th, barely 2 days before the wedding. Argh! I always reminded my self then to be linient because it's the holidays and I'm asking them to work. And so with that, they deserve all my praises. :)

Suited up,

Yosh 

Don't hurry growing up please!

It's friday. I should be happy because it's finally weekend but I got so emotional seeing our babies' pictures. They are growing up fast. Too fast!

I believe this was their first picture together some four years ago -

This was Christmas 2009 -

And this is how they look like now. The picture was from my wedding in December last year.

It all started yesterday when my tita Winnie was telling me a story that my godchild Iya has a suitor already and how my tito was so mad about it that he wanted his panganay to transfer school. I can imagine your reaction might be that my tito was so OA. But you have to know this, Iya is just 9 years old and only at 4th grade! It's too early right?


This is her now -

Isn't she the cutest? No wonder she's growing up to be a boy magnet. But the memory of her being our first baby is still fresh. Here, I'll share it with you -

Anyway, as I was telling my tita, my view on this matter is mainly circling on TRUST. I know Iya to be an intelligent girl (like me! ehem). Given that, we do not need to make drastic moves about the matter. Just talk to Iya about it. If possible, make an usapan like 'I want you to reach 18 first before having a boyfriend'. Something like that. Then trust her to fulfill the promise. Have a chastity ring if you must (aka purity ring. to practice abstinence until marriage). For me, its better if the child is open to the parents about the matters of the heart. It will be better if the advise will come from you instead of from some random people. And I would definitely prefer her to be courted inside the house instead of in the street or on facebook! As parents, you should be your child's bestfriends. The kid should enjoy sharing things with you, even crushes! I got this from my officemate - She's making sure that her children are enjoying every minute of their stay at home so they won't get bored and eventually might enjoy others' company outside their house more. But you also have to understand that their growing up is inevitable. People bound to grow old no matter what. One day, no matter how hard you prevent it, they will leave you and marry their prince charming. What you can do is enjoy every minute of their being your baby. On the side note, that's also the reason why I do not like to raise a kid with my husband abroad. I mean you are earning money so your children will have a good life. You are doing it for their future because you love them so much that you are willing to sacrifice being away from them. I got that point. But you are missing the most important part of being a parent - seeing your fruits grow! I remembered D's father telling me that of all his children, he is more afraid of D. When asked why, he said - Hindi ko kasi sya nakitang lumaki. Aww

But that's just me. I mean that's coming from someone who doesn't have a child yet. My views may change once I have a girl of my own. But having experienced the strictness of my family on that matter, I vowed to not let my child experience the same damn thing. I grew up avoiding to talk about my emotions or should I say I was not allowed to talk about crushes and boyfriends. They were so scared I'll be like my mom who got pregnant before she turned 18. I ended up having a boyfriend anyway because in my mind I'm asking 'Why Not? It's not like I'll have sex or anything. I just want to experience being loved by a person that I'm not related to by blood'. Since I'm not allowed to talk about it, my questions were unanswered and I kept the whole boyfriend thing secret. I let my mom meet my boyfriend when I was in college already, on my 18th birthday and in almost 2 years in the relationship. Isn't that awkward? I could have done something wrong for that long because I was not guided properly. Lucky them that I'm not the pasaway kind of kid. Now I realize, that probably was what happened to those who got pregnant early. So please parents! Start to communicate to your kiddos! That's what I'm doing to my sister. I just hope my power over her is that much.


Getting ready for the boyfriend talk,
Yosh